Emilio’s Tragedy

Emilio's entire family has but one wish: that they be allowed to continue lifesupport for this dear little boy in the hopes that indeed he will miraculously improve. But that is not the way the doctors and the hospital see it at all. In fact they have defined Emilio's treatment as "futile."

Time is running out for Emilio, but I have to say that I think time is running out for America as well. We give up too easily on those plagued with devastating conditions. Just this week the Senate, for example, approved the "Hope" act which give scientists the right to kill severely disabled human embryos.

Have we not come to a state in our nation whereby only the fit will survive, and the law will condone the killing of all others? As Amber Dolle, American Life League's media director, wrote in her column about Emilio this week,

As tragic as this case is, unfortunately, it is not a rarity. More and more states are enacting so-called futile care laws and more and more innocent people are dying, likely before their time. What is so troubling about these broad policies is that they do not pertain solely to extraordinary means used to keep a patient alive, such as ventilators. Rather, if hospital "experts" (doctors, ethics commissions and the like) so decide, they can remove a feeding tube used on patients who can't feed themselves. These are not extraordinary means to keep someone alive. These mechanisms simply provide a disabled person with the same necessities that you and I require to stay alive.